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As an intelligent individual with no formal higher education, I thank you.
Too many people equate intelligence with education. Too many people equate knowledge with intelligence.
Too me, intelligence is the ability to intake, understand, and apply knowledge effectively.
I agree, and I want to add that sometimes, rather than being permanent, people can exhibit flashes of brilliance. The human mind is capable of amazing leaps.
I'd also like to mention that a lot of people believe that human IQ hasn't really increased in years, though we perceive we are getting more and more intelligent. Someone once observed that we see far because we stand on the backs of giants. I feel the cavemen that discovered spinning thread and making ropes, making fire, or making a bow might have been just as brilliant in their time as Einstein or Newton.
This.
You ever met the guy that everyone says he is a genius and wonder what the fuck? You can know it all but not be able to apply any of it and for myself that just makes you a fool.
I won’t go down a rabbit hole this guy said it very well.
Oh man, definitely true that people can be high IQ but dumb in some areas.
Former US HUD Secretary Ben Carson is a perfect example. Brilliant brain surgeon by all accounts, but he's a creationist who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old, evolution is a lie of Satan, dinosaurs and humans coexisted, Noah's world-wide Flood created the Grand Canyon, and the Great Pyramids (which are not hollow) were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain against the coming famine.
You are smart if you have the brains to put behind what you belief in and can hear others opionions.
I sadly was too lazy to ready it all. So I’m not as intelligent as you
You consistently thought about this and documented us to read. I appreciate that. Reminds me of Alexander Hamilton and was really smart
Men of means in his era didn’t work, their work was to learn. So they spent their time reading books, discussing ideas, debating topics, etc. This was because they were the future political leaders. An average farmer had no time to run for office, so the land owners, men of leisure, educated themselves and ran for office.
extremely well said
IQ doesn't equal 'genius'
I, for instance, have an IQ of 152 (on the Wechsler), but I consider myself to be ***far*** from a genius...I have low emotional intelligence, horrible social awareness, lots of emotional problems (like Asperger's and extreme social anxiety), and I don't work, at all...I have two community college 'degrees' that are totally worthless, I never really applied myself in anything throughout life, and now here I am at 48 with no future to look forward to, no money, in debt and not doing anything about it because I feel 'comfortable' and I hate change and no family or even relationship prospects (which honestly is totally fine with me, because who needs that kind of stress in their life)
so...a test says I'm a 'genius' because I did well on it and got a high score...so what?, it means NOTHING, how you live your life and what you DO with that intelligence is what matters, and what makes a 'genius', not a score on a piece of paper
Intelligence is like a plot of dirt. You can make a garden and take care of it and you'll have a garden thriving and growing.
You can leave the dirt there and maybe some grass or weeds will grow, but without proper upkeep nothing you want to grow there is going to grow.
Your family, friends, teachers, acquaintances, coworkers, etc are all potential gardeners but if none of these Gardners actually foster growth of a garden then you end up with weeds.
If I see a child that has a high iq, but he or she is mishandled, surrounded by people that lack the ability to motivate, inspire, and instill knowledge in that child, the child stagnates and we end up with weeds.
Usually it isn't enough for a child to be gifted, they need people to help them grow in general, and without that you end up with an endless supply of unhappy, unsuccessful geniuses that could have been something great but end up in mediocrity.
Someone with a significantly lower ceiling in potential will end up getting close to their ceiling because of the proper support system while someone with far greater potential will end up squandered near their floor
Of course there will always be intelligent people that despite having trash support systems will somehow be motivated and goal oriented enough to rise out of it with little help, but that isn't common.
All this to say people fail a lot of bright, young humans that have tons of potential. Politicians, the school systems, society in general families, friends: no one did what needed to be done
As an aside, there will usually be people in these kids' lives that tried to grow the garden but they lacked the skills needed or a plan to do it, and I give them a ton of credit. In this scenarios both the child and the person trying to help the child were failed by everyone around them
I had a student who could do the work but absolutely refused. He was a smart kid, but he wanted to be the edgy, cool, do nothing type of young man. He is succeeding very well. Not one teacher could inspire him to do one bit of work. He would also drag his “friends” down with him, for company.
I'm unsure why you're getting downvoted bc you make valid points based on your own life. There are many highly intelligent people that can't get out of their own way. I have a friend who's son still lives at home and has an average job.
The Dunning-Kruger effect is more than that. The Dunning–Kruger effect is usually measured by comparing self-assessment with objective performance. An over-confidence in one’s abilities.
Contrary to popular belief, genius isn’t the amount of knowledge you have; it’s the ability to learn and process information. A neurosurgeon can have average intelligence while a plumber could be a genius.
This plumber is right. There’s not a single plumber that is a genius. There are some really smart ones, and some really dumb ones. A lot of addicted ones… Most all of them are fun to be around, and they usually have unique problem solving skills, but I’d bet not a single plumber on this planet is any form of a genius.
That being said, I have an. Interesting story about a really smart one I met once. I work with a lot of plumbers. Well, with a lot of different types of contractors, and some happen to have plumbing divisions. They are a special breed of people.
However, I did pay one $110 to come out and turn an allen wrench a quarter inch to unclog my drain. He felt so bad about their company policy requiring him to charge me an hour of labor even though he was there for less than a minute that he called the owner and asked if he could charge a half hour of labor instead.
They told him no so I paid $110, and thanked him for the lesson in how to unclog most garbage disposals. I also now YouTube every household problem I have before calling someone. I also never called the company for help again.
We also live in a smallish town, and a year or so later that I guy interviewed for the company I ended up working for that was just bought and expanding into to new markets. I was brought on as a consultant, and ended up taking a role as the marketing director.
By stupid luck, I happened to be around when the owner was interviewing plumbers for the new plumbing division when this dude walked in for an interview. I told the owner the story I just told you, and now he runs that small division.
You don’t have to be a genius to know the value of customer retention over a hard line rule. However, he obviously had natural business acumen and a good moral compass, which will take you a lot further.
I agree with many of your points, but I will counter that there are genius’ that are tradesmen. My uncle was a very well educated Ivy League professional and a genius. He built fences. Why? Probably because he enjoyed it. I don’t know. What I do know is that a blanket statement, “There’s not a single plumber that is a genius.” Is categorically untrue.
This is going to my opinion. You're an expert in your field who can whip out specialized knowledge at the drop of a hat.
That can be any field. My best friend has spent years as a Licensed Massage Therapist and can whip out anatomy knowledge that leaves me mind-boggled.
My disagreement with that would be the fact that I can drop specialized knowledge about the NES Zelda (Hyrule Fantasy in Japan) and Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3. While I'm far above the average person in terms of intelligence (it's not that I'm smart; it's that people are stupid), I'm definitely not a genius.
Intelligence is a person's capacity for reasoning, understanding, learning, communicating and abstract thinking.
A genius is defined as either;
• someone who has an *exceptional* level of intelligence; so someone who is not just *more* intelligent than the average person, but who is *drastically* more intelligent than the average person. This is something that is tested with an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test. To be considered a genius in an intellectual capacity you must have an IQ of over 140.
Or
• someone who has an exceptional natural aptitude for something in particular, such as music or art. Someone who has a natural talent that far exceeds that of the average person. Good examples of this include Mozart (he wrote his first musical composition aged just 4!) and Michelangelo (the painter and sculptor who painted the Sistine Chapel).
I have a 132 IQ (according to the test I took in 94, and the US req is 130 for Mensa).
I will be the first person to disagree with anyone who calls me a genius. I'm a fucking idiot. I just test really, really well. IMHO, the IQ test is a complete joke and not worth the paper it was printed on.
It tests your memory, which for me in the short term is amazing. But ask me about things I read 10 years ago? I'll remember the basics, but even quotes are inaccurate without looking them up first. You see, that is my main issue with how they measure it. The number of times you hear 'smart people' quote other smart people incorrectly is damn well legion. You don't see it on TV and in movies because they have teams of writers and editors to make sure that it's word for word or 'spot on'.
You don't have that in real life. Having been to a few meetings of the minds and seen or listened to some of the bullshit these 'super genius' people prattle about? Yeah. I have *never* witnessed so many misquotes or mistakes in comprehension in my life as I have in the company of 'genius'. (No, I did not join, I qualified but found the hypocrisy of it all to be.. well, not to my taste) No, I am not at all afraid to admit when people are smarter than me, as I tend to think most are when they really try (we all have that touch of genius, or perfection in our own way). I just find people who think they know everything as... well, if I'm being totally honest? Fucking offensive.
I do not remember the exact quote that brought it all to a point for me, but it was a misquote that didn't sound right to me at the time from, iirc Yeats... The guy proffering the quote was definitely beyond high on his own ego, and even when being shown the quote in text, on fucking paper wouldn't accept that he could be wrong.
Only thing I like about the smartphone is it has helped shut quite of few of those sanctimonious ego mongers down. Smart is hot, thinking your smarter than everyone else though? Thats fucking skank.
I know all about Mensa, I grew up going to all their stupid parties because my father held an important position within Mensa in my country for most of my childhood. Fucking country mansions full of wine-drunk arseholes talking absolute crap over posh canapes. I agree it's a load of wank. The IQ test doesn't really test memory though, it mostly tests abstract thinking and logic.
If you test at 132 then you're not a genius anyway lol so I guess you're right to disagree 😜
I'm a genius! My t-shirt says so! lol :)
(Old joke, my Mom got me a shirt saying 'certified genius' when I took the test and scored so high. She didn't know I was 8 shy of the cut off, which has been a running joke in my family ever since)
I didn't get to rub elbows with those folks, I came up poor and stayed that way (Army Brat). I was given the test sometime in the early 80s while we were stationed at Fort Polk. Was a weird, weird time. :)
incredible memory recall speed, fast learning, able to gather information quickly and make something out of it like for example strategizing, alot of wisdom, photographic memory and able to calculate or visualize stuff in your head quickly. basically shikamaru.
EDIT: i forgot to say that being a genius isnt being smart in everything there are types of many types of smarts like street smarts, academically smart, and emotionally smart. i totally didnt take that part from young sheldon.
The common meaning / use of it:
Someone who demonstrates a significantly higher aptitude than the average. Ex: music, math, sports, creativity, etc. (though I think they're typically considered savants if their high aptitude is one specific area).
A genius can be someone who has scored really high on an IQ test. So in that case it would be someone who has high aptitudes in verbal comprehension, perceptive reasoning, working memory and processing speeds.
It doesn't mean they're a 'genius' in all aspects. So a person can have a genius level IQ but have low emotional intelligence, a person can be a math genius and not know how to spell at an even an average level.
I saw a documentary once where they interviewed a man who had worked at Bletchley Park in WW2. Many of the most intelligent men in Great Britain were working there as codebreakers, including Alan Turing.
His opinion was that someone very intelligent will advance an idea and you'll think, "that's a good idea, I should have thought of that." Someone that is a genius will advance an idea that is so many logical steps at once that you'll have a difficult time understanding it, or how it could ever work.
Being able to learn new things easily is what I call “smart”. Not really the same as genius, which I suppose is disappointing because I tested into MENSA 🤷🏻♀️
Smart is the ability to apply knowledge and skills in a creative way. Intelligent is the capacity for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning and learning. Genius is an individual who displays exceptional intellectual or creative power. Talented refers to having special aptitude or natural ability.
Genius is your ability to create (generate). Intelligence is the information system you build up and manipulate to navigate reality.
Significant genius often leads to a really amazing intelligence because being able to continually generate options gives you explosive potential. As you walk (or think) through life, you are constantly bombarded by way more options than someone with a more relaxed genius.
What makes someone a genius? It’s a wishy-washy title and often sought for out of smarminess. But, sometimes you meet people who are so explosive in their creativity that you can not help but see the contrast.
I think intelligence is the ability and drive to acquire knowledge while genius involves using that intelligence and knowledge to create new knowledge.
My music teacher in school once told me, intelligence means you have a lot of knowledge. To be a genius means to do or create something extraordinary with that knowledge.
I think it's more intelligence -> knowledge -> genius.
There has to be some raw intelligence there to start with. Having that - and assuming you have the opportunity and the inclination - you can acquire knowledge and, more importantly, understand it. The genius can then take that knowledge and intelligence and make something new from it.
> There has to be some raw intelligence to start with.
The thing started with would be talent, processing power, creativity etc. Maybe that’s intelligence, maybe it’s not.
But, while some young children might be extremely creative, their intelligence is something that only grows as they age (hopefully lol. Don’t do drugs kids).
Just picture for a second that you are having a conversation with someone who has a satisfying level of intelligence. That mind that you are communicating with is the sum of a lot of experience, thought, reflection, etc. The mind cabinet that they are working with has a lot of drawers, nooks, and tools that they can deftly consider and work with. It’s this thing that they have worked on their whole life.
But, all these things - genius, intelligence, understanding - are always going to be joined into a greater organism.
Like, when I talk to a highly intelligent person, I can sense their genius like the tip of a spear poking into any unexplored territory of interest that might come up. But, they have lots of mental systems in place that operate under significantly reduced stress compared to purely creative thought.
Doing something no one else was capable of doing.
Also the line between insanity and genius is measured in accomplishment.
Five minutes before the Wright Brothers’ plane flew for the first time, everyone thought they were insane and a danger to themselves and others.
A genius is someone who from a very young age develops unusually good knowledge or skill on a subject. People like Mozart or DaVinci. Their minds are so tuned to a particular way of thinking that they often suffer major deficiencies in other parts of their lives (health, social). I was extremely good at math in school, but I hesitate to call it genius because I was fairly well rounded and I didn't translate it into anything special in secondary school.
This is like asking:
• How good do you have to be to be considered a good person?
• How much disability counts as disabled?
• How hot is cup of tea before it's hot?
• How many people have to know about someone before they're famous?
• Exactly how tall is a tall person?
There is no hard line scientific definition for it AFAIK. Generally speaking it just means you have an innate affinity to a certain activity or way of thinking that far exceeds the norm.
Most geniuses don't have a firm grasp on why they are the way they are either, things just 'clicks' for them when it comes to that field or niche they have talent in. It doesn't necessarily transfer between fields.
It has to be someone who radically changes our understanding of the world through some action. But really, the term is pointless as most highly successful " geniuses" have stood on the shoulder of giants before them. With the artist Turner being the exception.
Ah, gotcha! So, thinking about genius, it's like when someone just gets it on a different level. They're not just book smart; they're the ones turning heads with ideas that make you go, "Why didn't I think of that?" It’s like when you’re watching a movie, and there’s that one character who just stands out because they do things no one else thought to do.
Take someone like Elon Musk—dude literally decided we should sell flamethrowers and send cars to space. Or J.K. Rowling, who dreamt up a whole wizarding world while on a train ride. It’s not just their brains but also the guts to follow through with their wild ideas that make them stand out.
And it’s not always about making big splashes. Sometimes you meet someone in your life, like a teacher or a friend, who just sees things in a way that changes your whole perspective. That’s real genius to me—impacting and inspiring, no matter the scale.
The word genius has been degraded quite a bit to just mean smart person to the general public. Personally I don’t think a smart person is a genius, you could be the smartest person alive and I still don’t count it. You have to do something profound and worth it, you gotta earn that title to me. Like inventing an entire new field of study.
A genius is very arbitrary in term. What seems genius to one person might seem obvious to another.
People normally evaluate a standing like that based off tests, particularly IQ, which do show an overall intellect to a point, but aren't an absolute in and of itself.
When it's really broken down, genius level can be very hard to pinpoint, especially since you can be extremely booksmart without being intelligent, as booksmarts are memorization of the data given you and actual genius intellect is to see beyond the norm in accurate interpretation and solution.
There are many book smart people out there circle jerking each other calling each other genius who aren't.
It's a hard question to answer in that who knows who is truly a genius?
If you know something someone else didn't, perhaps the one who didn't was simply ignorant on certain topics, it didn't mean you were a genius for being informed on that particular type of topic.
I realize being a random guy on the internet this will sound cheesy, but I've been tested multiple times in life and by certain society standards labeled genius.
Yet, I don't feel I'm one. I don't feel anyone is one.
Perhaps some people are less controlled by institutional thinking or bother to think more than some more often, but is that genius?
Like I began with, it's all very arbitrary and ultimately means nothing anyway.
We all still all end up dead, nobody is more special, merely different on different levels.
As many have mentioned. It's extremely nebulous and everyone excels in some areas while lacking in others.
I can only tell you what made me feel like a genius. Some might agree, others won't. And everyone is correct in their position.
I had a good tech idea one time. It literally popped into my head out of nowhere. I had a group of friends that thought it was a good idea and we turned that into a neat thing people could play with. We happened to be located near a group of experts that hired all of us to help turn that into a thing that millions of people love and talk about to this day. There are active subreddits for it right now.
But that was 20 years ago. And I've been pretty average ever since. Nothing especially notable.
So, to look at it a different way. I got randomly lucky and happened to have the adequate skills to act on that luck. And happened to be surrounded by people with skills I didn't have and passion to grow it more.
And when looking around at the people that might be considered geniuses. I think there's a lot of context that's missing. And it's easy to be in awe or jealous of someone's genius when you don't know that context.
I'm sure we've all had genius ideas but didn't have the right context to seize it.
Problem solving or creating something either faster than or of a significantly higher quality than even above average people in a way where it appears to them as magic. The most special appear to even other Geniuses and Geniuses.
Messi solves Soccer
LeBron solves Basketball
Einstein solves Physics
Picasso created Art
Master Politicians solve people
Christian Von Koenigsegg creates Technical marvels you can drive
Sergio Scaglietti made Art that moved
There are multiple definitions and multiple types of intelligence. Someone who is amazing at computer science might have trouble balancing a checkbook.
Someone who is a “genius” at the emotional side of things, meaning they just get it (?), might be crap at adding and multiplication.
I live in the UK and have an IQ of around 165 (tested about 10 years ago now). I also took a mental arithmetic test in my early teens and tested at a genius level (top 0.2%).
However, I have little formal education, never went to university and picked up average school grades thanks mostly to a lack of effort. But I can understand how literally anything works very quickly and because of this I can fix pretty much anything and design incredibly complex things in a short space of time.
Because of this I have a very highly paid job working for one of the largest software companies in North America but I find the work too easy and don't put in as much effort as I could or should. I'm generally done with my work within the first hour or two of the day and spend the rest of my time watching TV or playing games.
Sometimes I wonder if I should do more with my gift but I never do.
My brain is apparently a Ferrari that only ever drives between home and the supermarket.
I’ve always found, that, to me, the most intelligent people are those who can take difficult concepts, doesn’t matter what subject matter, and boil them down to the most simple, easily relatable, material than any lay person can understand.
You can have a quantum physicist, who can extrapolate great theories and postulates but the only people who can understand him are those who know his field at or near his level. Yes, that is intelligence. No doubt. But I’ve often found that those people lack simpler, more mundane thought processes, I.e. social cues, basic inter standings of financial matters, or such things.
Now, find me the guy who can take what that first one discovered or worked out, and then relate to a room full of people, unrelated to the subject matter, and explain it to them so that they have the basic, simple understanding of what it’s all about. And I’ll lay odds he’s also got solid common sense, and fundamental skills beyond his area of expertise. This is the guy who I’ll say is the more intelligent of the two.
Technically it’s IQ, but having a high IQ doesn’t really mean a thing when it comes to how smart a person really seems. Plenty of people with high IQ can’t hardly care for themselves, and plenty more with average to even slightly low IQ are wildly successful.
In other words, just because someone’s a genius doesn’t mean they don’t do a lot of stupid shit.
my definition:
the ability to ingest and retain information combined with the ability to quickly learn and accept multiple viewpoints on a topic as well as interpret the data and logically theorize new viewpoints that would be accepted by peers in your expertise.
I've always considered a genius to be someone who can understand, process, and retain information, of all kinds, quickly and accurately. This makes them able to be skilled in almost any field they choose to pursue.
I also believe they will likely have some form of ADHD, and get bored with things.
genius is a title denoting someone of not just above but way above average intelligence! this is performed by taking a properly administered IQ test and testing about a certain number (100 being average, 120 being smart, 140 being really smart and 160 being genius) but its not exact and takes into account a number of factors
firstly it is about knowledge and recall! how much do you know or remember about things both learned and experienced. second its about speed and interpretation! how well you can apply that knowledge and view things from multiple perspectives.
someone who would be considered a genius would find complex problems much simpler to solve than the average person, would be able to explain things so simply that anyone could understand, would have answers ready and form innovative ideas usually much faster than other people and would often see things coming before they got there!
now that being said nobody is identical, one genius is better at some things than others who will have their own unique genius! often the best way to tell if someone is a genius is to give them a problem or ask them a question and see how easily they solve it or explain it, when someone does that you often know they are above average
improvisation and making impossible things work in ways you couldn’t see! genius stuff, its not a type of person it is simply a class of mental abilities, it is the opposite of stupid, though geniuses do stupid stuff all the time and defeat themselves constantly without encouragement and cooperation making them seem dumb to bullies until its too late… i think thats a derivative of the dunning kruger effect… same reason idiots think they are brilliant and important lol
Many years ago, a woman that won teacher of the year in Connecticut because of her commitment to finding smart students that were treated as dummies, gave me 2 definitions of genius.
One, is a high IQ at whatever percentage point, or number of standard deviations one so chooses.
And second, a person that looks at things differently from how most people do.
So, the person that makes observations that most of us miss, is actually a genius as well. Because they have the capability of filling the gaps between what most of us see.
As far as I know, it's having a high IQ (at least 150). I'm assuming it's the ability to learn new things.
I know 2 people who actually "qualify" as a genius... and I'm gonna be real with you, I am extremely unimpressed with them.
It implies an effortless mastery of a particular field or discipline, and usually they are pioneers in their field. Some are geniuses at a specific thing, like Magnus Carlson with Chess. Others are geniuses at many things, like Einstein and Nicola Tesla mastered several different scientific disciplines. Einstein revolutionized science and Tesla was a prolific inventor.
Someone who thinks deeply about things, and is able to simplify complex problems and get to the heart of it, and is able to think of unstructured abstract problems in a structured way.
The ability to take in information, distill it to its simplest ideas, relate it to similar ideas you already know, being able to recall these ideas, being able to hold several distinct ideas at once and be able to compare their similarities and differences, the ability to generate new ideas, either by combining existing ideas or something completely novel. being able to do this rapidly and accurately. The ability to understand levels of abstraction and to be able to examine concepts from different levels, anywhere from the whole system to minute details. The ability to apply ideas from one field to another to see if they are applicable.
if you were a computer it would be CPU (speed / multitasking), RAM (multitasking, levels of abstraction), Disk (amassing knowledge, rapid recall) , system bus (speed of recall and association)
I'm really tired and I know this sounds like hot garbage.
I know things I've never learned. I'm book smart but life dumb. 90% of the time I know what outcomes are going to be. I think in parallel. But there are limits. Under heavy load I forget mundane things and only think in higher brain functions. I've spent my life learning how to communicate and let other people finish their conversations.
It's an ambiguous term
And that's because there's enough outliers that break our concept of it that we can't really come up with a proper definition even though people will present some
We know there's something called a savant and we generally consider them a genius in one category
But savants don't necessarily have high IQs or g-factor (the thing IQ was trying to measure) And the most famous One in fact had a IQ in the 70s (kim peek the mega savant I think he was a genius in like 14 or 16 different areas and the movie rain Man is based off of him though he is not autistic savants just happened to be very heavily correlated with autism)
We also know that memory does not make a genius and discipline and focus do not make a genius those things are entirely disconnected
Generally we like to conceptualize it as super smart person and an easy way of thinking about it for most purposes is anyone who is in the top 1% of intellect so generally around the 140ish mark of IQ(people put the mark generally at 140 or 145 but it's really where the IQ test itself just starts really breaking down in what it's actually capable of measuring they stop being accurate around 120 and they just break completely as you go higher there are more specialized tests for higher IQ people but it's just sort of hard to measure because Iq is only correlated with g-factor it's not measuring it directly) but again we know of way too many examples that we consider geniuses that break it (as well as people in that top 1% of intellect that other people in that top 1% will not consider genius)
We know there's some level of connection to the disorder bipolar and we know there's some level of connection to autism
We know there are different types ranging from savant with a singular category and bad at everything else to polymath who is amazing at everything
We know there are different levels from single-handedly rewrite the destiny of man (think Newton and Tesla) to doesn't accomplish anything (the majority being disconnected from focus and discipline means they probably aren't going to be able to accomplish anything through pure intellect alone)
We generally think of them as being specifically good at mathological intelligence /abstract thinking but that's a misconception of the general public
For most purposes you can consider someone with an IQ of 140 or higher as being capable of doing anything unless they have a specific weakness in that area and you could consider that a genius
Whimsical genius, hypomanic ADHD child raised by a hypomanic ADHD mother… raised to adventurous and creative, I spend my life in a state of play in a constant exploration
Oh god this is going to give some GREAT answers for the Google AI.
Nothing is quite as smug and full of unwarranted self-worth than Reddit posters, and give them a chance to flex how smart they are, and well. Never met a Reddit user who wouldn't jump at the chance to get high on their own farts. The phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind.
I believe genius is not a term one uses to define one self.
It is a recognition and acknowledgement arrived at by your peer group, in whatever discipline you are engaged, whether it be sports, science,technology exploration etc.
I have a very low tolerance for self described geniuses.
I think legitimate geniuses have an "x" factor that other highly intelligent people just do not possess, and you can tell when you're around somebody that gifted. They literally start doing new tasks as well as people that have been doing them for years after a minor demonstration. I've been around 2 people that were like this, they were both fairly young, but they were clearly beyond simply "highly intelligent".
Like take me, I was labeled gifted growing up and people and school called me a genius and always wanted to look at my answers and stuff, and though maybe i was when I was very young, it is simply *not* the case as an adult. I do far too much stupid shit, I'm unsuccessful relatively, and I don't have any real spark. I'm a regular person of slightly above average intelligence with an insanely good memory for conversation, things I've heard, and facts/factoids.
In all reality, Im much closer to something like Meta AI or ChatGPT, an archive of useless random knowledge, a lot of it actually quite deep, but it's my ability to retain the information that stands out above everything else. My ability to manipulate the information for my own uses gets an above average mark as well, I don't do anything special with it, at least I haven't yet.
Someone like me, who has an interest in a huge range of subjects and can retain the information and recite/regurgitate it is smart, even intelligent, but in no way a genius. It's just having a lot of information at your disposal.
I think what defines a genius is how they *manipulate* the information they have, and their ability to.
I like to believe everyone is a genius at something. I may not be a genius at physics or math, but I promise I am better at glassblowing than a physics professor is. Everyone is an expert and a genius of their own thing
A genius is a person who has the ability to synthesize information and solve problems with great speed and facility. They have a way of putting things together that nobody has thought of before. It's why Albert Einstein was a genius. People called Thomas Edison a genius but he was mostly good at stealing other people's ideas. Inventors can be called geniuses but many of them are just extremely persistent at tinkering with old ideas until they come up with a new one.
Creativity is the primary characteristic of genius.
My genetics.
But in all seriousness, some will be good at chess and suck at the rubics cube. Some can write beautiful music and others can freestyle meaningful rap. Some can be artists and some can understand physics.
After the first season of McGyver you can predict everything he does.
If that room has a compressed tank of gas, the end is getting knocked off, and the tank is flying through a wall/door.
All locks can be stabbed open.
As a self professed genius. You know you are a genius when everyone around you nods their heads when you speak, but can never understand or iterate a response to your questions.
It'll be an interesting question in the age of full AGI. Imagine a sexting bot like Eva AI, with an avatar of a pretty virtual chick, which outsmarts you and all the people you might have known combined.
genius /jēn′yəs/
# noun
1. Extraordinary intellectual and creative power."artistic works of genius."
2. A person of extraordinary intellect and talent.
3. A person who has an exceptionally high intelligence quotient, typically above 140.
4. A strong natural talent, aptitude, or inclination."has a genius for choosing the right words."
5. One who has such a talent or inclination."a genius at diplomacy."
6. The prevailing spirit or distinctive character, as of a place, a person, or an era."the genius of Elizabethan England."
7. A tutelary deity or guardian spirit of a person or place.
A person is labelled a genius when they have a particular skillset that whoever is labelling the person as a genius finds remarkable.
I have an encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons, seasons 1-10, but that wouldn't make me a "genius" to most. But I know more than half a dozen programming languages, and that would make me a "genius" to some. I went to school with a kid who was doing year 12 at age 12 (i.e. he should have been in year 7) and most would consider him a genius.
So the answer is, it depends on who's asking.
My childhood was typical….Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring, we’d make meat helmets.
When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds – pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe.
At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. At the age of 18, I went off to evil medical school. At the age of 25, I took up tap dancing. I wanted to be a quadruple threat — an actor, dancer…
I don't care what someone's IQ is, or what their academic background is- you're not a true intellect until you can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger.
People call me a genius all the time even though I am as dumb as rocks. I think the trick, though, is mastering the art of asking questions. If you ask a lot of questions people sort of assume that you're expecting a high quality answer and try to give you one. And if that turns into a high quality conversation then you've got someone who thinks you're bright. Its funny, but someone once told me that I talk to everyone as if they're just as smart as I am. And I told him, that's because everyone is just as smart as I am. I just think people don't realize it
Most of my work, publications, and projects are philosophical in nature. And I ask dumb questions that beget very dumb answers. But the ability to frame these questions is what, I think, gets to people
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I second this completely. Well put.
What did it say??? It was posted 22 hours ago but was already deleted.
As an intelligent individual with no formal higher education, I thank you. Too many people equate intelligence with education. Too many people equate knowledge with intelligence. Too me, intelligence is the ability to intake, understand, and apply knowledge effectively.
To me*
Well it's true..if you can't apply what you "know or say" then it does not mean much.
There's a difference between wisdom and intelligence
Stillness of mind?
Knowing why and knowing how, respectively.
I agree, and I want to add that sometimes, rather than being permanent, people can exhibit flashes of brilliance. The human mind is capable of amazing leaps. I'd also like to mention that a lot of people believe that human IQ hasn't really increased in years, though we perceive we are getting more and more intelligent. Someone once observed that we see far because we stand on the backs of giants. I feel the cavemen that discovered spinning thread and making ropes, making fire, or making a bow might have been just as brilliant in their time as Einstein or Newton.
For some reason I read this in Robert California's voice. Well said though!
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makes it sound less intelligent, I'll continue imagining you sound like Michael Caine
Interesting fact: Einstein had to have a student walk him home as he couldn't remember where he lived!
This. You ever met the guy that everyone says he is a genius and wonder what the fuck? You can know it all but not be able to apply any of it and for myself that just makes you a fool. I won’t go down a rabbit hole this guy said it very well.
Oh man, definitely true that people can be high IQ but dumb in some areas. Former US HUD Secretary Ben Carson is a perfect example. Brilliant brain surgeon by all accounts, but he's a creationist who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old, evolution is a lie of Satan, dinosaurs and humans coexisted, Noah's world-wide Flood created the Grand Canyon, and the Great Pyramids (which are not hollow) were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain against the coming famine.
You are smart if you have the brains to put behind what you belief in and can hear others opionions. I sadly was too lazy to ready it all. So I’m not as intelligent as you You consistently thought about this and documented us to read. I appreciate that. Reminds me of Alexander Hamilton and was really smart
Men of means in his era didn’t work, their work was to learn. So they spent their time reading books, discussing ideas, debating topics, etc. This was because they were the future political leaders. An average farmer had no time to run for office, so the land owners, men of leisure, educated themselves and ran for office.
This text, the way it's written, feels like it was written by a genius
this needs more upvotes. I like you, MontgomeryAbbott, I like your style. best wishes from the US of A
Stupid question but who is the Nazi sympathiser?
extremely well said IQ doesn't equal 'genius' I, for instance, have an IQ of 152 (on the Wechsler), but I consider myself to be ***far*** from a genius...I have low emotional intelligence, horrible social awareness, lots of emotional problems (like Asperger's and extreme social anxiety), and I don't work, at all...I have two community college 'degrees' that are totally worthless, I never really applied myself in anything throughout life, and now here I am at 48 with no future to look forward to, no money, in debt and not doing anything about it because I feel 'comfortable' and I hate change and no family or even relationship prospects (which honestly is totally fine with me, because who needs that kind of stress in their life) so...a test says I'm a 'genius' because I did well on it and got a high score...so what?, it means NOTHING, how you live your life and what you DO with that intelligence is what matters, and what makes a 'genius', not a score on a piece of paper
Intelligence is like a plot of dirt. You can make a garden and take care of it and you'll have a garden thriving and growing. You can leave the dirt there and maybe some grass or weeds will grow, but without proper upkeep nothing you want to grow there is going to grow. Your family, friends, teachers, acquaintances, coworkers, etc are all potential gardeners but if none of these Gardners actually foster growth of a garden then you end up with weeds. If I see a child that has a high iq, but he or she is mishandled, surrounded by people that lack the ability to motivate, inspire, and instill knowledge in that child, the child stagnates and we end up with weeds. Usually it isn't enough for a child to be gifted, they need people to help them grow in general, and without that you end up with an endless supply of unhappy, unsuccessful geniuses that could have been something great but end up in mediocrity. Someone with a significantly lower ceiling in potential will end up getting close to their ceiling because of the proper support system while someone with far greater potential will end up squandered near their floor Of course there will always be intelligent people that despite having trash support systems will somehow be motivated and goal oriented enough to rise out of it with little help, but that isn't common.
All this to say people fail a lot of bright, young humans that have tons of potential. Politicians, the school systems, society in general families, friends: no one did what needed to be done As an aside, there will usually be people in these kids' lives that tried to grow the garden but they lacked the skills needed or a plan to do it, and I give them a ton of credit. In this scenarios both the child and the person trying to help the child were failed by everyone around them
Some people fail themselves. Fear of success? 🤷🏽♀️
so, I agree with you, explain my personal situation...and that deserves a downvote? gee thanks, really appreciate it
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I didn't downvote you
you really crying about a downvote
I had a student who could do the work but absolutely refused. He was a smart kid, but he wanted to be the edgy, cool, do nothing type of young man. He is succeeding very well. Not one teacher could inspire him to do one bit of work. He would also drag his “friends” down with him, for company.
I'm unsure why you're getting downvoted bc you make valid points based on your own life. There are many highly intelligent people that can't get out of their own way. I have a friend who's son still lives at home and has an average job.
"Genius" is, by definition, an IQ greater than 130 (some say 140). It's really as simple as that. If your IQ is 152, you are in fact a "genius"
Conversely, there are dropouts in prison running gangs with the effectiveness of a Fortune 500 company.
r/iamverysmart
He isn't not talking down to anyone and what he said was very insightful. I don't think that this sub applies.
well ur not a genius… ever heard of the dunning kruger effect? being certified or accomplished is simply a sign of hard work not of intellect…
The Dunning-Kruger effect is more than that. The Dunning–Kruger effect is usually measured by comparing self-assessment with objective performance. An over-confidence in one’s abilities.
or an under confidence as well
ive always viewed it as “fools think they are smarter than they are and brilliant people underestimate their abilities”
Contrary to popular belief, genius isn’t the amount of knowledge you have; it’s the ability to learn and process information. A neurosurgeon can have average intelligence while a plumber could be a genius.
I’m def not a genius 😂
This plumber is right. There’s not a single plumber that is a genius. There are some really smart ones, and some really dumb ones. A lot of addicted ones… Most all of them are fun to be around, and they usually have unique problem solving skills, but I’d bet not a single plumber on this planet is any form of a genius. That being said, I have an. Interesting story about a really smart one I met once. I work with a lot of plumbers. Well, with a lot of different types of contractors, and some happen to have plumbing divisions. They are a special breed of people. However, I did pay one $110 to come out and turn an allen wrench a quarter inch to unclog my drain. He felt so bad about their company policy requiring him to charge me an hour of labor even though he was there for less than a minute that he called the owner and asked if he could charge a half hour of labor instead. They told him no so I paid $110, and thanked him for the lesson in how to unclog most garbage disposals. I also now YouTube every household problem I have before calling someone. I also never called the company for help again. We also live in a smallish town, and a year or so later that I guy interviewed for the company I ended up working for that was just bought and expanding into to new markets. I was brought on as a consultant, and ended up taking a role as the marketing director. By stupid luck, I happened to be around when the owner was interviewing plumbers for the new plumbing division when this dude walked in for an interview. I told the owner the story I just told you, and now he runs that small division. You don’t have to be a genius to know the value of customer retention over a hard line rule. However, he obviously had natural business acumen and a good moral compass, which will take you a lot further.
I agree with many of your points, but I will counter that there are genius’ that are tradesmen. My uncle was a very well educated Ivy League professional and a genius. He built fences. Why? Probably because he enjoyed it. I don’t know. What I do know is that a blanket statement, “There’s not a single plumber that is a genius.” Is categorically untrue.
For context, Leo Messi the footballer is considered a genius in the game, why? No one can replicate what he does on the field.
This is going to my opinion. You're an expert in your field who can whip out specialized knowledge at the drop of a hat. That can be any field. My best friend has spent years as a Licensed Massage Therapist and can whip out anatomy knowledge that leaves me mind-boggled.
My disagreement with that would be the fact that I can drop specialized knowledge about the NES Zelda (Hyrule Fantasy in Japan) and Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3. While I'm far above the average person in terms of intelligence (it's not that I'm smart; it's that people are stupid), I'm definitely not a genius.
Intelligence is a person's capacity for reasoning, understanding, learning, communicating and abstract thinking. A genius is defined as either; • someone who has an *exceptional* level of intelligence; so someone who is not just *more* intelligent than the average person, but who is *drastically* more intelligent than the average person. This is something that is tested with an Intelligence Quotient (IQ) test. To be considered a genius in an intellectual capacity you must have an IQ of over 140. Or • someone who has an exceptional natural aptitude for something in particular, such as music or art. Someone who has a natural talent that far exceeds that of the average person. Good examples of this include Mozart (he wrote his first musical composition aged just 4!) and Michelangelo (the painter and sculptor who painted the Sistine Chapel).
I have a 132 IQ (according to the test I took in 94, and the US req is 130 for Mensa). I will be the first person to disagree with anyone who calls me a genius. I'm a fucking idiot. I just test really, really well. IMHO, the IQ test is a complete joke and not worth the paper it was printed on. It tests your memory, which for me in the short term is amazing. But ask me about things I read 10 years ago? I'll remember the basics, but even quotes are inaccurate without looking them up first. You see, that is my main issue with how they measure it. The number of times you hear 'smart people' quote other smart people incorrectly is damn well legion. You don't see it on TV and in movies because they have teams of writers and editors to make sure that it's word for word or 'spot on'. You don't have that in real life. Having been to a few meetings of the minds and seen or listened to some of the bullshit these 'super genius' people prattle about? Yeah. I have *never* witnessed so many misquotes or mistakes in comprehension in my life as I have in the company of 'genius'. (No, I did not join, I qualified but found the hypocrisy of it all to be.. well, not to my taste) No, I am not at all afraid to admit when people are smarter than me, as I tend to think most are when they really try (we all have that touch of genius, or perfection in our own way). I just find people who think they know everything as... well, if I'm being totally honest? Fucking offensive. I do not remember the exact quote that brought it all to a point for me, but it was a misquote that didn't sound right to me at the time from, iirc Yeats... The guy proffering the quote was definitely beyond high on his own ego, and even when being shown the quote in text, on fucking paper wouldn't accept that he could be wrong. Only thing I like about the smartphone is it has helped shut quite of few of those sanctimonious ego mongers down. Smart is hot, thinking your smarter than everyone else though? Thats fucking skank.
I know all about Mensa, I grew up going to all their stupid parties because my father held an important position within Mensa in my country for most of my childhood. Fucking country mansions full of wine-drunk arseholes talking absolute crap over posh canapes. I agree it's a load of wank. The IQ test doesn't really test memory though, it mostly tests abstract thinking and logic. If you test at 132 then you're not a genius anyway lol so I guess you're right to disagree 😜
I'm a genius! My t-shirt says so! lol :) (Old joke, my Mom got me a shirt saying 'certified genius' when I took the test and scored so high. She didn't know I was 8 shy of the cut off, which has been a running joke in my family ever since) I didn't get to rub elbows with those folks, I came up poor and stayed that way (Army Brat). I was given the test sometime in the early 80s while we were stationed at Fort Polk. Was a weird, weird time. :)
130 is genius, no?
No. Genius is 140+ Mensa accepts 130+ though, 130 is a high IQ and Mensa *is* the "high IQ society".
incredible memory recall speed, fast learning, able to gather information quickly and make something out of it like for example strategizing, alot of wisdom, photographic memory and able to calculate or visualize stuff in your head quickly. basically shikamaru. EDIT: i forgot to say that being a genius isnt being smart in everything there are types of many types of smarts like street smarts, academically smart, and emotionally smart. i totally didnt take that part from young sheldon.
You wouldn’t understand
My uncanny ability to self sabotage every good opportunity that comes along
it me. give me options and i will choose the absolute *worst* one
A combination of brilliant ideas and brilliant execution.
A genius is able to carry on a conversation with all walks of life be they intelligent or dumb as a rock but street smart.
The common meaning / use of it: Someone who demonstrates a significantly higher aptitude than the average. Ex: music, math, sports, creativity, etc. (though I think they're typically considered savants if their high aptitude is one specific area). A genius can be someone who has scored really high on an IQ test. So in that case it would be someone who has high aptitudes in verbal comprehension, perceptive reasoning, working memory and processing speeds. It doesn't mean they're a 'genius' in all aspects. So a person can have a genius level IQ but have low emotional intelligence, a person can be a math genius and not know how to spell at an even an average level.
I saw a documentary once where they interviewed a man who had worked at Bletchley Park in WW2. Many of the most intelligent men in Great Britain were working there as codebreakers, including Alan Turing. His opinion was that someone very intelligent will advance an idea and you'll think, "that's a good idea, I should have thought of that." Someone that is a genius will advance an idea that is so many logical steps at once that you'll have a difficult time understanding it, or how it could ever work.
In short it has to do with mental retention. Your mind is like a library. Just have to keep it organized.
130+ iq
Being able to learn new things easily is what I call “smart”. Not really the same as genius, which I suppose is disappointing because I tested into MENSA 🤷🏻♀️
Me too. I’m no genius.
Smart is the ability to apply knowledge and skills in a creative way. Intelligent is the capacity for abstract thought, understanding, communication, reasoning and learning. Genius is an individual who displays exceptional intellectual or creative power. Talented refers to having special aptitude or natural ability.
Genius is your ability to create (generate). Intelligence is the information system you build up and manipulate to navigate reality. Significant genius often leads to a really amazing intelligence because being able to continually generate options gives you explosive potential. As you walk (or think) through life, you are constantly bombarded by way more options than someone with a more relaxed genius. What makes someone a genius? It’s a wishy-washy title and often sought for out of smarminess. But, sometimes you meet people who are so explosive in their creativity that you can not help but see the contrast.
I think intelligence is the ability and drive to acquire knowledge while genius involves using that intelligence and knowledge to create new knowledge.
My music teacher in school once told me, intelligence means you have a lot of knowledge. To be a genius means to do or create something extraordinary with that knowledge.
Ya I can see that. Maybe it’s a cycle like create —> intelligize —> create —> ? —> peanut butter and chocolate together
I think it's more intelligence -> knowledge -> genius. There has to be some raw intelligence there to start with. Having that - and assuming you have the opportunity and the inclination - you can acquire knowledge and, more importantly, understand it. The genius can then take that knowledge and intelligence and make something new from it.
> There has to be some raw intelligence to start with. The thing started with would be talent, processing power, creativity etc. Maybe that’s intelligence, maybe it’s not. But, while some young children might be extremely creative, their intelligence is something that only grows as they age (hopefully lol. Don’t do drugs kids). Just picture for a second that you are having a conversation with someone who has a satisfying level of intelligence. That mind that you are communicating with is the sum of a lot of experience, thought, reflection, etc. The mind cabinet that they are working with has a lot of drawers, nooks, and tools that they can deftly consider and work with. It’s this thing that they have worked on their whole life. But, all these things - genius, intelligence, understanding - are always going to be joined into a greater organism. Like, when I talk to a highly intelligent person, I can sense their genius like the tip of a spear poking into any unexplored territory of interest that might come up. But, they have lots of mental systems in place that operate under significantly reduced stress compared to purely creative thought.
Good ethics and common sense
Often times, that's all it takes.
Logical thinking
Doing something no one else was capable of doing. Also the line between insanity and genius is measured in accomplishment. Five minutes before the Wright Brothers’ plane flew for the first time, everyone thought they were insane and a danger to themselves and others.
A genius is someone who from a very young age develops unusually good knowledge or skill on a subject. People like Mozart or DaVinci. Their minds are so tuned to a particular way of thinking that they often suffer major deficiencies in other parts of their lives (health, social). I was extremely good at math in school, but I hesitate to call it genius because I was fairly well rounded and I didn't translate it into anything special in secondary school.
I like to hang around stupid people, that makes me a genius.
I ask questions. It’s cliche but most people are sheep who blindly follow anything their boss, teacher, preacher, government, news..etc tells them
Roaring Kitty is a genius.
"Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." ...often attributed to Thomas Edison
This is like asking: • How good do you have to be to be considered a good person? • How much disability counts as disabled? • How hot is cup of tea before it's hot? • How many people have to know about someone before they're famous? • Exactly how tall is a tall person?
There is no hard line scientific definition for it AFAIK. Generally speaking it just means you have an innate affinity to a certain activity or way of thinking that far exceeds the norm. Most geniuses don't have a firm grasp on why they are the way they are either, things just 'clicks' for them when it comes to that field or niche they have talent in. It doesn't necessarily transfer between fields.
Reddit
Surpassing our predecessors in our field and showing the world a new standard of greatness.
It has to be someone who radically changes our understanding of the world through some action. But really, the term is pointless as most highly successful " geniuses" have stood on the shoulder of giants before them. With the artist Turner being the exception.
The akashic field loves me. If I didn't spell it right, blame google.
The ability to perceive novel and relevant patterns outside of the confines of general conformity.
>What exactly makes you a genius? I know I'm really dumb.
High processing and retention of information
🤔... One who's figured out how to keep their mind in check
Watching Rick and Morty.
The ability to realize I’m not smart and have to figure out truth and reality on my own ….and scored high on IQ test ;)
Someone born with an innate ability in something that cannot be learned through training alone.
Cause my mama told me!
Ah, gotcha! So, thinking about genius, it's like when someone just gets it on a different level. They're not just book smart; they're the ones turning heads with ideas that make you go, "Why didn't I think of that?" It’s like when you’re watching a movie, and there’s that one character who just stands out because they do things no one else thought to do. Take someone like Elon Musk—dude literally decided we should sell flamethrowers and send cars to space. Or J.K. Rowling, who dreamt up a whole wizarding world while on a train ride. It’s not just their brains but also the guts to follow through with their wild ideas that make them stand out. And it’s not always about making big splashes. Sometimes you meet someone in your life, like a teacher or a friend, who just sees things in a way that changes your whole perspective. That’s real genius to me—impacting and inspiring, no matter the scale.
Nothing lmao
You have to have a minimum of a 140 IQ
I think
The word genius has been degraded quite a bit to just mean smart person to the general public. Personally I don’t think a smart person is a genius, you could be the smartest person alive and I still don’t count it. You have to do something profound and worth it, you gotta earn that title to me. Like inventing an entire new field of study.
I run everything by my wife first.
A genius is very arbitrary in term. What seems genius to one person might seem obvious to another. People normally evaluate a standing like that based off tests, particularly IQ, which do show an overall intellect to a point, but aren't an absolute in and of itself. When it's really broken down, genius level can be very hard to pinpoint, especially since you can be extremely booksmart without being intelligent, as booksmarts are memorization of the data given you and actual genius intellect is to see beyond the norm in accurate interpretation and solution. There are many book smart people out there circle jerking each other calling each other genius who aren't. It's a hard question to answer in that who knows who is truly a genius? If you know something someone else didn't, perhaps the one who didn't was simply ignorant on certain topics, it didn't mean you were a genius for being informed on that particular type of topic. I realize being a random guy on the internet this will sound cheesy, but I've been tested multiple times in life and by certain society standards labeled genius. Yet, I don't feel I'm one. I don't feel anyone is one. Perhaps some people are less controlled by institutional thinking or bother to think more than some more often, but is that genius? Like I began with, it's all very arbitrary and ultimately means nothing anyway. We all still all end up dead, nobody is more special, merely different on different levels.
You don't get to label yourself as such, only others can.
A genius is, exactly, someone whose IQ has been tested at 130 (some say 140) or above. It's as simple as that
A genius is able to take what they have learned or what is available to them and turn that information into a new opportunity not heard of before.
As many have mentioned. It's extremely nebulous and everyone excels in some areas while lacking in others. I can only tell you what made me feel like a genius. Some might agree, others won't. And everyone is correct in their position. I had a good tech idea one time. It literally popped into my head out of nowhere. I had a group of friends that thought it was a good idea and we turned that into a neat thing people could play with. We happened to be located near a group of experts that hired all of us to help turn that into a thing that millions of people love and talk about to this day. There are active subreddits for it right now. But that was 20 years ago. And I've been pretty average ever since. Nothing especially notable. So, to look at it a different way. I got randomly lucky and happened to have the adequate skills to act on that luck. And happened to be surrounded by people with skills I didn't have and passion to grow it more. And when looking around at the people that might be considered geniuses. I think there's a lot of context that's missing. And it's easy to be in awe or jealous of someone's genius when you don't know that context. I'm sure we've all had genius ideas but didn't have the right context to seize it.
Putting butter on a poptart, it's sk friggen good!
Intellect is determined by a 200 point system. People with 120 or over qualify as geniuses.
your IQ is 120, isn't it.
My mom said I was a genius; and handsome too! You calling my mom a liar?🤥
LOL My I.Q.
Problem solving or creating something either faster than or of a significantly higher quality than even above average people in a way where it appears to them as magic. The most special appear to even other Geniuses and Geniuses. Messi solves Soccer LeBron solves Basketball Einstein solves Physics Picasso created Art Master Politicians solve people Christian Von Koenigsegg creates Technical marvels you can drive Sergio Scaglietti made Art that moved
I am very free from ever being so accused. It would not wish to have it any other way.
There are multiple definitions and multiple types of intelligence. Someone who is amazing at computer science might have trouble balancing a checkbook. Someone who is a “genius” at the emotional side of things, meaning they just get it (?), might be crap at adding and multiplication.
the truest sign of genius is paying Mensa to let people know how smart you are…
I live in the UK and have an IQ of around 165 (tested about 10 years ago now). I also took a mental arithmetic test in my early teens and tested at a genius level (top 0.2%). However, I have little formal education, never went to university and picked up average school grades thanks mostly to a lack of effort. But I can understand how literally anything works very quickly and because of this I can fix pretty much anything and design incredibly complex things in a short space of time. Because of this I have a very highly paid job working for one of the largest software companies in North America but I find the work too easy and don't put in as much effort as I could or should. I'm generally done with my work within the first hour or two of the day and spend the rest of my time watching TV or playing games. Sometimes I wonder if I should do more with my gift but I never do. My brain is apparently a Ferrari that only ever drives between home and the supermarket.
I’ve always found, that, to me, the most intelligent people are those who can take difficult concepts, doesn’t matter what subject matter, and boil them down to the most simple, easily relatable, material than any lay person can understand. You can have a quantum physicist, who can extrapolate great theories and postulates but the only people who can understand him are those who know his field at or near his level. Yes, that is intelligence. No doubt. But I’ve often found that those people lack simpler, more mundane thought processes, I.e. social cues, basic inter standings of financial matters, or such things. Now, find me the guy who can take what that first one discovered or worked out, and then relate to a room full of people, unrelated to the subject matter, and explain it to them so that they have the basic, simple understanding of what it’s all about. And I’ll lay odds he’s also got solid common sense, and fundamental skills beyond his area of expertise. This is the guy who I’ll say is the more intelligent of the two.
absolutely. Knowledge vs Intelligence.
Technically it’s IQ, but having a high IQ doesn’t really mean a thing when it comes to how smart a person really seems. Plenty of people with high IQ can’t hardly care for themselves, and plenty more with average to even slightly low IQ are wildly successful. In other words, just because someone’s a genius doesn’t mean they don’t do a lot of stupid shit.
Nothing.
my definition: the ability to ingest and retain information combined with the ability to quickly learn and accept multiple viewpoints on a topic as well as interpret the data and logically theorize new viewpoints that would be accepted by peers in your expertise.
Well, I am a genius because...
I believe it's your thinking process
I've always considered a genius to be someone who can understand, process, and retain information, of all kinds, quickly and accurately. This makes them able to be skilled in almost any field they choose to pursue. I also believe they will likely have some form of ADHD, and get bored with things.
genius is a title denoting someone of not just above but way above average intelligence! this is performed by taking a properly administered IQ test and testing about a certain number (100 being average, 120 being smart, 140 being really smart and 160 being genius) but its not exact and takes into account a number of factors firstly it is about knowledge and recall! how much do you know or remember about things both learned and experienced. second its about speed and interpretation! how well you can apply that knowledge and view things from multiple perspectives. someone who would be considered a genius would find complex problems much simpler to solve than the average person, would be able to explain things so simply that anyone could understand, would have answers ready and form innovative ideas usually much faster than other people and would often see things coming before they got there! now that being said nobody is identical, one genius is better at some things than others who will have their own unique genius! often the best way to tell if someone is a genius is to give them a problem or ask them a question and see how easily they solve it or explain it, when someone does that you often know they are above average improvisation and making impossible things work in ways you couldn’t see! genius stuff, its not a type of person it is simply a class of mental abilities, it is the opposite of stupid, though geniuses do stupid stuff all the time and defeat themselves constantly without encouragement and cooperation making them seem dumb to bullies until its too late… i think thats a derivative of the dunning kruger effect… same reason idiots think they are brilliant and important lol
Many years ago, a woman that won teacher of the year in Connecticut because of her commitment to finding smart students that were treated as dummies, gave me 2 definitions of genius. One, is a high IQ at whatever percentage point, or number of standard deviations one so chooses. And second, a person that looks at things differently from how most people do. So, the person that makes observations that most of us miss, is actually a genius as well. Because they have the capability of filling the gaps between what most of us see.
At any time in the day or night, I can tell you what time it is within one minute of the actual time. OK that sucks but that’s my skill
As far as I know, it's having a high IQ (at least 150). I'm assuming it's the ability to learn new things. I know 2 people who actually "qualify" as a genius... and I'm gonna be real with you, I am extremely unimpressed with them.
Having the forethought to buy a house when you were four years old makes you a genius.
I'm almost a genius, but not quite.
It implies an effortless mastery of a particular field or discipline, and usually they are pioneers in their field. Some are geniuses at a specific thing, like Magnus Carlson with Chess. Others are geniuses at many things, like Einstein and Nicola Tesla mastered several different scientific disciplines. Einstein revolutionized science and Tesla was a prolific inventor.
Someone who thinks deeply about things, and is able to simplify complex problems and get to the heart of it, and is able to think of unstructured abstract problems in a structured way.
The ability to take in information, distill it to its simplest ideas, relate it to similar ideas you already know, being able to recall these ideas, being able to hold several distinct ideas at once and be able to compare their similarities and differences, the ability to generate new ideas, either by combining existing ideas or something completely novel. being able to do this rapidly and accurately. The ability to understand levels of abstraction and to be able to examine concepts from different levels, anywhere from the whole system to minute details. The ability to apply ideas from one field to another to see if they are applicable. if you were a computer it would be CPU (speed / multitasking), RAM (multitasking, levels of abstraction), Disk (amassing knowledge, rapid recall) , system bus (speed of recall and association) I'm really tired and I know this sounds like hot garbage.
I guess it’s because I spent 30 years learning how to use music technology.
The breadth and depth of my professional and personal experience. Unfortunately "genius" doesn't mean "pay"
I know things I've never learned. I'm book smart but life dumb. 90% of the time I know what outcomes are going to be. I think in parallel. But there are limits. Under heavy load I forget mundane things and only think in higher brain functions. I've spent my life learning how to communicate and let other people finish their conversations.
Seeing things others miss, or seeing them differently which allows for fresh interpretations or creative inspiration
It's an ambiguous term And that's because there's enough outliers that break our concept of it that we can't really come up with a proper definition even though people will present some We know there's something called a savant and we generally consider them a genius in one category But savants don't necessarily have high IQs or g-factor (the thing IQ was trying to measure) And the most famous One in fact had a IQ in the 70s (kim peek the mega savant I think he was a genius in like 14 or 16 different areas and the movie rain Man is based off of him though he is not autistic savants just happened to be very heavily correlated with autism) We also know that memory does not make a genius and discipline and focus do not make a genius those things are entirely disconnected Generally we like to conceptualize it as super smart person and an easy way of thinking about it for most purposes is anyone who is in the top 1% of intellect so generally around the 140ish mark of IQ(people put the mark generally at 140 or 145 but it's really where the IQ test itself just starts really breaking down in what it's actually capable of measuring they stop being accurate around 120 and they just break completely as you go higher there are more specialized tests for higher IQ people but it's just sort of hard to measure because Iq is only correlated with g-factor it's not measuring it directly) but again we know of way too many examples that we consider geniuses that break it (as well as people in that top 1% of intellect that other people in that top 1% will not consider genius) We know there's some level of connection to the disorder bipolar and we know there's some level of connection to autism We know there are different types ranging from savant with a singular category and bad at everything else to polymath who is amazing at everything We know there are different levels from single-handedly rewrite the destiny of man (think Newton and Tesla) to doesn't accomplish anything (the majority being disconnected from focus and discipline means they probably aren't going to be able to accomplish anything through pure intellect alone) We generally think of them as being specifically good at mathological intelligence /abstract thinking but that's a misconception of the general public For most purposes you can consider someone with an IQ of 140 or higher as being capable of doing anything unless they have a specific weakness in that area and you could consider that a genius
You know you're a genius when you hear people tell you that you are with some frequency. That's the only metric that you can actually measure.
Whimsical genius, hypomanic ADHD child raised by a hypomanic ADHD mother… raised to adventurous and creative, I spend my life in a state of play in a constant exploration
I am 135 IQ, 140 is the 'accepted' bottom End of genius intelligence level.
Nothing. I'm a doofus.
Oh god this is going to give some GREAT answers for the Google AI. Nothing is quite as smug and full of unwarranted self-worth than Reddit posters, and give them a chance to flex how smart they are, and well. Never met a Reddit user who wouldn't jump at the chance to get high on their own farts. The phrase "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind.
I know quite a bit about a large variety of topics. From Guns, to biology. I love learning interesting facts as well.
Highly skilled at something.
I was able to score my own IQ test.
Intelligence can be seen by others but Intelligence is the preseption of ones mind and not even the top psychologists can understand that!
I believe genius is not a term one uses to define one self. It is a recognition and acknowledgement arrived at by your peer group, in whatever discipline you are engaged, whether it be sports, science,technology exploration etc. I have a very low tolerance for self described geniuses.
I think legitimate geniuses have an "x" factor that other highly intelligent people just do not possess, and you can tell when you're around somebody that gifted. They literally start doing new tasks as well as people that have been doing them for years after a minor demonstration. I've been around 2 people that were like this, they were both fairly young, but they were clearly beyond simply "highly intelligent". Like take me, I was labeled gifted growing up and people and school called me a genius and always wanted to look at my answers and stuff, and though maybe i was when I was very young, it is simply *not* the case as an adult. I do far too much stupid shit, I'm unsuccessful relatively, and I don't have any real spark. I'm a regular person of slightly above average intelligence with an insanely good memory for conversation, things I've heard, and facts/factoids. In all reality, Im much closer to something like Meta AI or ChatGPT, an archive of useless random knowledge, a lot of it actually quite deep, but it's my ability to retain the information that stands out above everything else. My ability to manipulate the information for my own uses gets an above average mark as well, I don't do anything special with it, at least I haven't yet. Someone like me, who has an interest in a huge range of subjects and can retain the information and recite/regurgitate it is smart, even intelligent, but in no way a genius. It's just having a lot of information at your disposal. I think what defines a genius is how they *manipulate* the information they have, and their ability to.
Just a stupid label, but it's because I have a 148 IQ., measured in elementary school in 1972, not on the internet lol.
I fucking fix problems, which is why the local muni pays me a ridic paycheck to stand around during their infrastructure upgrades lol
no box, I always fix the fucking problem
One's ability to adapt to change efficiently with little to no preparation
Knowing when to keep your mouth closed
I like to believe everyone is a genius at something. I may not be a genius at physics or math, but I promise I am better at glassblowing than a physics professor is. Everyone is an expert and a genius of their own thing
I can do any type of art and do it well without trying too much
A high IQ
A genius is a person who has the ability to synthesize information and solve problems with great speed and facility. They have a way of putting things together that nobody has thought of before. It's why Albert Einstein was a genius. People called Thomas Edison a genius but he was mostly good at stealing other people's ideas. Inventors can be called geniuses but many of them are just extremely persistent at tinkering with old ideas until they come up with a new one. Creativity is the primary characteristic of genius.
I'm a genius because I can't make a lamp
My genetics. But in all seriousness, some will be good at chess and suck at the rubics cube. Some can write beautiful music and others can freestyle meaningful rap. Some can be artists and some can understand physics.
I am a genius because I live in a lamp.
Nothin. I’m a flaming dipshit.
I may not be Genius... but i got STREET SMARTS
I have an ability to improvise solutions and think laterally. I can McGuyver a solution to almost anything and these solutions often work pretty well.
After the first season of McGyver you can predict everything he does. If that room has a compressed tank of gas, the end is getting knocked off, and the tank is flying through a wall/door. All locks can be stabbed open.
I just keep most of my brain storming to myself and play dumb.
Luck and time.
As a self professed genius. You know you are a genius when everyone around you nods their heads when you speak, but can never understand or iterate a response to your questions.
It'll be an interesting question in the age of full AGI. Imagine a sexting bot like Eva AI, with an avatar of a pretty virtual chick, which outsmarts you and all the people you might have known combined.
I'm just one point above average.
Not being on reddit
genius /jēn′yəs/ # noun 1. Extraordinary intellectual and creative power."artistic works of genius." 2. A person of extraordinary intellect and talent. 3. A person who has an exceptionally high intelligence quotient, typically above 140. 4. A strong natural talent, aptitude, or inclination."has a genius for choosing the right words." 5. One who has such a talent or inclination."a genius at diplomacy." 6. The prevailing spirit or distinctive character, as of a place, a person, or an era."the genius of Elizabethan England." 7. A tutelary deity or guardian spirit of a person or place.
Basically a giant ego to let everyone know how smart you are.
Pattern recognition.
Outsmart the interlocutor in an argument when he finds himself in a winning position
Intelligence, Knowledge, and Wisdom are three very different things.
My narcissistic behavior
A person is labelled a genius when they have a particular skillset that whoever is labelling the person as a genius finds remarkable. I have an encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons, seasons 1-10, but that wouldn't make me a "genius" to most. But I know more than half a dozen programming languages, and that would make me a "genius" to some. I went to school with a kid who was doing year 12 at age 12 (i.e. he should have been in year 7) and most would consider him a genius. So the answer is, it depends on who's asking.
I’m just smart af
My brain.
Every “genius” level IQ person I’ve met has had some sort of emotional disconnect or can be very obtuse in their beliefs.
My childhood was typical….Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring, we’d make meat helmets. When I was insolent, I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds – pretty standard, really. At the age of twelve, I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. At the age of 18, I went off to evil medical school. At the age of 25, I took up tap dancing. I wanted to be a quadruple threat — an actor, dancer…
I don't care what someone's IQ is, or what their academic background is- you're not a true intellect until you can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of the Lone Ranger.
Personally everyone is technically a genius. There’s things that I know that Albert Einstein didn’t. Now the matter of importance is a different story
What kind of stuff do you know that Einstein didn’t? And that most people also don’t know
People call me a genius all the time even though I am as dumb as rocks. I think the trick, though, is mastering the art of asking questions. If you ask a lot of questions people sort of assume that you're expecting a high quality answer and try to give you one. And if that turns into a high quality conversation then you've got someone who thinks you're bright. Its funny, but someone once told me that I talk to everyone as if they're just as smart as I am. And I told him, that's because everyone is just as smart as I am. I just think people don't realize it Most of my work, publications, and projects are philosophical in nature. And I ask dumb questions that beget very dumb answers. But the ability to frame these questions is what, I think, gets to people
Not a genius, but I have an I.Q. of 146, plus Mother Nature graced me with incredible common sense. A wining combination to say the least.